This blog is a first prologue for a keynote at the FreshOutlook Feb. 27, 2012 Building SustainABLE Communities Conference. Meshworking is an intelligence of the human hive (Hamilton, 2008) that creates a "meshwork" by weaving together the best of two operating systems — one that self-organizes, and one that replicates hierarchical structures. From an Integral City perspective this [...]
The Integral City 2.0 embraces and develops human systems. It draws on the frameworks of complex human development of Ken Wilber, Don Beck, Clare Graves and Ervin Laszlo; living systems theory of James Grier Miller; ecological sustainability of William Rees and Mathis Wackernagel; resilience models of C.S. Holling et al; and bio-social-evolutionist dynamics of Jared Diamond [...]
Energy, information and matter tracking technology is revealing behavioral secrets of the Human Hive. Three of the best examples I've found are: Britain from Above - this BBC series explores explores the evolution of Britain's infrastructure development from agriculture to transportation, communication to education, and cities to rural redevelopment across the ages. Mesh Cities - a new website whose [...]
At Experience Integral's Embody Integral Sustainability Conference convenor Anouk Brack very wisely used a Theory U design for the five day discovery process. Theory U process is based on the work of Otto Scharmer and is a multi-stage experience that enables a group to traverse the territory from initiation, to sensing, to presencing, to crystallizing to prototyping. and co-creating. I [...]
The Experience Integral Conference 2011 incorporated powerful practitioners and technologies into its design for the Embodying Integral Sustainability Conference. Five Wisdoms was a new approach for Integral City to working with spiritual practice, energy and collaboration. Five Wisdoms lead us to a place where we could apply it to the Roles in the Sustainability Leadership Meshwork that we [...]
Go listen to Geoffrey West - there he is again! My friends and colleagues say go to hear his talk on Why Cities Keep Growing. When more than three people recommend a site to me, then I sit up and take notice. In this case I am happy to say that I followed the link [...]
Last week Almere Netherlands was the location of my learning and the focus of my attention. Attending the fifth Centre for Human Emergence, NL, fifth Spiral Dynamics Integral Confab, Almere was featured in case studies to explore the city with Integral City related lenses. Almere was created as a New Town, 30 years ago, using [...]
This is An Open Letter to Three Women Imagineers of the Integral Age On The Occasion of the 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day Dear Drs. Hazel Henderson, Barbara Marx Hubbard and Jean Houston I claimed I was never a feminist in the 60’s or 70’s. That’s because I didn’t see myself as an activist [...]
The watch continues as events unfold in North African and the Middle Eastern cities and countries. We wonder whether and how autocracies in these places may be superseded by autocracy, theocracy or even democracy? Each country is different so most informed observers don't expect that a single solution will emerge across all countries. From the outside of this area, all we can see [...]
Further to my interview with Will Varey in Perth about emergence in the city (also see Blog) we talked about the dilemma that in one location we have multiple cities. Effectively each citizen carries around a unique mental model of the city and through the magic of self-organizing systems we negotiate this complex territory. The [...]